Is there a way I can put some code on my page so when someone visits a site, it clears the browser cache, so they can view the changes?
Languages used: ASP.NET, VB.NET, and of course HTML, CSS, and jQuery.
If this is about .css and .js changes, then one way is "cache busting" by appending something like "_versionNo" to the file name for each release. For example:
script_1.0.css // This is the URL for release 1.0
script_1.1.css // This is the URL for release 1.1
script_1.2.css // etc.
or after the file name:
script.css?v=1.0 // This is the URL for release 1.0
script.css?v=1.1 // This is the URL for release 1.1
script.css?v=1.2 // etc.
You can check this link to see how it could work.
Look into the cache-control and the expires META Tag.
<META HTTP-EQUIV="CACHE-CONTROL" CONTENT="NO-CACHE">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="EXPIRES" CONTENT="Mon, 22 Jul 2002 11:12:01 GMT">
Another common practices is to append constantly-changing strings to the end of the requested files. For instance:
<script type="text/javascript" src="main.js?v=12392823"></script>
Update 2012
This is an old question but I think it needs a more up to date answer because now there is a way to have more control of website caching.
In Offline Web Applications (which is really any HTML5 website) applicationCache.swapCache() can be used to update the cached version of your website without the need for manually reloading the page.
This is a code example from the Beginner's Guide to Using the Application Cache on HTML5 Rocks explaining how to update users to the newest version of your site:
// Check if a new cache is available on page load.
window.addEventListener('load', function(e) {
window.applicationCache.addEventListener('updateready', function(e) {
if (window.applicationCache.status == window.applicationCache.UPDATEREADY) {
// Browser downloaded a new app cache.
// Swap it in and reload the page to get the new hotness.
window.applicationCache.swapCache();
if (confirm('A new version of this site is available. Load it?')) {
window.location.reload();
}
} else {
// Manifest didn't changed. Nothing new to server.
}
}, false);
}, false);
See also Using the application cache on Mozilla Developer Network for more info.
Update 2016
Things change quickly on the Web.
This question was asked in 2009 and in 2012 I posted an update about a new way to handle the problem described in the question. Another 4 years passed and now it seems that it is already deprecated. Thanks to cgaldiolo for pointing it out in the comments.
Currently, as of July 2016, the HTML Standard, Section 7.9, Offline Web applications includes a deprecation warning:
This feature is in the process of being removed from the Web platform.
(This is a long process that takes many years.) Using any of the
offline Web application features at this time is highly discouraged.
Use service workers instead.
So does Using the application cache on Mozilla Developer Network that I referenced in 2012:
Deprecated This feature has been removed from the Web standards.
Though some browsers may still support it, it is in the process of
being dropped. Do not use it in old or new projects. Pages or Web apps
using it may break at any time.
See also Bug 1204581 - Add a deprecation notice for AppCache if service worker fetch interception is enabled.
Not as such. One method is to send the appropriate headers when delivering content to force the browser to reload:
Making sure a web page is not cached, across all browsers.
If your search for "cache header" or something similar here on SO, you'll find ASP.NET specific examples.
Another, less clean but sometimes only way if you can't control the headers on server side, is adding a random GET parameter to the resource that is being called:
myimage.gif?random=1923849839
I had similiar problem and this is how I solved it:
In index.html file I've added manifest:
<html manifest="cache.manifest">
In <head> section included script updating the cache:
<script type="text/javascript" src="update_cache.js"></script>
In <body> section I've inserted onload function:
<body onload="checkForUpdate()">
In cache.manifest I've put all files I want to cache. It is important now that it works in my case (Apache) just by updating each time the "version" comment. It is also an option to name files with "?ver=001" or something at the end of name but it's not needed. Changing just # version 1.01 triggers cache update event.
CACHE MANIFEST
# version 1.01
style.css
imgs/logo.png
#all other files
It's important to include 1., 2. and 3. points only in index.html. Otherwise
GET http://foo.bar/resource.ext net::ERR_FAILED
occurs because every "child" file tries to cache the page while the page is already cached.
In update_cache.js file I've put this code:
function checkForUpdate()
{
if (window.applicationCache != undefined && window.applicationCache != null)
{
window.applicationCache.addEventListener('updateready', updateApplication);
}
}
function updateApplication(event)
{
if (window.applicationCache.status != 4) return;
window.applicationCache.removeEventListener('updateready', updateApplication);
window.applicationCache.swapCache();
window.location.reload();
}
Now you just change files and in manifest you have to update version comment. Now visiting index.html page will update the cache.
The parts of solution aren't mine but I've found them through internet and put together so that it works.
For static resources right caching would be to use query parameters with value of each deployment or file version. This will have effect of clearing cache after each deployment.
/Content/css/Site.css?version={FileVersionNumber}
Here is ASP.NET MVC example.
<link href="#Url.Content("~/Content/Css/Reset.css")?version=#this.GetType().Assembly.GetName().Version" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
Don't forget to update assembly version.
I had a case where I would take photos of clients online and would need to update the div if a photo is changed. Browser was still showing the old photo. So I used the hack of calling a random GET variable, which would be unique every time. Here it is if it could help anybody
<img src="/photos/userid_73.jpg?random=<?php echo rand() ?>" ...
EDIT
As pointed out by others, following is much more efficient solution since it will reload images only when they are changed, identifying this change by the file size:
<img src="/photos/userid_73.jpg?modified=<? filemtime("/photos/userid_73.jpg")?>"
A lot of answers are missing the point - most developers are well aware that turning off the cache is inefficient. However, there are many common circumstances where efficiency is unimportant and default cache behavior is badly broken.
These include nested, iterative script testing (the big one!) and broken third party software workarounds. None of the solutions given here are adequate to address such common scenarios. Most web browsers are far too aggressive caching and provide no sensible means to avoid these problems.
Updating the URL to the following works for me:
/custom.js?id=1
By adding a unique number after ?id= and incrementing it for new changes, users do not have to press CTRL + F5 to refresh the cache. Alternatively, you can append hash or string version of the current time or Epoch after ?id=
Something like ?id=1520606295
<meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache" />
Also see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/126772/how-to-force-a-web-browser-not-to-cache-images
Here is the MDSN page on setting caching in ASP.NET.
Response.Cache.SetExpires(DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(60))
Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.Public)
Response.Cache.SetValidUntilExpires(False)
Response.Cache.VaryByParams("Category") = True
If Response.Cache.VaryByParams("Category") Then
'...
End If
Not sure if that might really help you but that's how caching should work on any browser. When the browser request a file, it should always send a request to the server unless there is a "offline" mode. The server will read some parameters like date modified or etags.
The server will return a 304 error response for NOT MODIFIED and the browser will have to use its cache. If the etag doesn't validate on server side or the modified date is below the current modified date, the server should return the new content with the new modified date or etags or both.
If there is no caching data sent to the browser, I guess the behavior is undetermined, the browser may or may not cache file that don't tell how they are cached. If you set caching parameters in the response it will cache your files correctly and the server then may choose to return a 304 error, or the new content.
This is how it should be done. Using random params or version number in urls is more like a hack than anything.
http://www.checkupdown.com/status/E304.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_ETag
http://www.xpertdeveloper.com/2011/03/last-modified-header-vs-expire-header-vs-etag/
After reading I saw that there is also a expire date. If you have problem, it might be that you have a expire date set up. In other words, when the browser will cache your file, since it has a expiry date, it shouldn't have to request it again before that date. In other words, it will never ask the file to the server and will never receive a 304 not modified. It will simply use the cache until the expiry date is reached or cache is cleared.
So that is my guess, you have some sort of expiry date and you should use last-modified etags or a mix of it all and make sure that there is no expire date.
If people tends to refresh a lot and the file doesn't get changed a lot, then it might be wise to set a big expiry date.
My 2 cents!
I implemented this simple solution that works for me (not yet on production environment):
function verificarNovaVersio() {
var sVersio = localStorage['gcf_versio'+ location.pathname] || 'v00.0.0000';
$.ajax({
url: "./versio.txt"
, dataType: 'text'
, cache: false
, contentType: false
, processData: false
, type: 'post'
}).done(function(sVersioFitxer) {
console.log('Versió App: '+ sVersioFitxer +', Versió Caché: '+ sVersio);
if (sVersio < (sVersioFitxer || 'v00.0.0000')) {
localStorage['gcf_versio'+ location.pathname] = sVersioFitxer;
location.reload(true);
}
});
}
I've a little file located where the html are:
"versio.txt":
v00.5.0014
This function is called in all of my pages, so when loading it checks if the localStorage's version value is lower than the current version and does a
location.reload(true);
...to force reload from server instead from cache.
(obviously, instead of localStorage you can use cookies or other persistent client storage)
I opted for this solution for its simplicity, because only mantaining a single file "versio.txt" will force the full site to reload.
The queryString method is hard to implement and is also cached (if you change from v1.1 to a previous version will load from cache, then it means that the cache is not flushed, keeping all previous versions at cache).
I'm a little newbie and I'd apreciate your professional check & review to ensure my method is a good approach.
Hope it helps.
In addition to setting Cache-control: no-cache, you should also set the Expires header to -1 if you would like the local copy to be refreshed each time (some versions of IE seem to require this).
See HTTP Cache - check with the server, always sending If-Modified-Since
There is one trick that can be used.The trick is to append a parameter/string to the file name in the script tag and change it when you file changes.
<script src="myfile.js?version=1.0.0"></script>
The browser interprets the whole string as the file path even though what comes after the "?" are parameters. So wat happens now is that next time when you update your file just change the number in the script tag on your website (Example <script src="myfile.js?version=1.0.1"></script>) and each users browser will see the file has changed and grab a new copy.
Force browsers to clear cache or reload correct data? I have tried most of the solutions described in stackoverflow, some work, but after a little while, it does cache eventually and display the previous loaded script or file. Is there another way that would clear the cache (css, js, etc) and actually work on all browsers?
I found so far that specific resources can be reloaded individually if you change the date and time on your files on the server. "Clearing cache" is not as easy as it should be. Instead of clearing cache on my browsers, I realized that "touching" the server files cached will actually change the date and time of the source file cached on the server (Tested on Edge, Chrome and Firefox) and most browsers will automatically download the most current fresh copy of whats on your server (code, graphics any multimedia too). I suggest you just copy the most current scripts on the server and "do the touch thing" solution before your program runs, so it will change the date of all your problem files to a most current date and time, then it downloads a fresh copy to your browser:
<?php
touch('/www/sample/file1.css');
touch('/www/sample/file2.js');
?>
then ... the rest of your program...
It took me some time to resolve this issue (as many browsers act differently to different commands, but they all check time of files and compare to your downloaded copy in your browser, if different date and time, will do the refresh), If you can't go the supposed right way, there is always another usable and better solution to it. Best Regards and happy camping. By the way touch(); or alternatives work in many programming languages inclusive in javascript bash sh php and you can include or call them in html.
For webpack users:-
I added time with chunkhash in my webpack config. This solved my problem of invalidating cache on each deployment. Also we need to take care that index.html/ asset.manifest is not cached both in your CDN or browser. Config of chunk name in webpack config will look like this:-
fileName: [chunkhash]-${Date.now()}.js
or If you are using contenthash then
fileName: [contenthash]-${Date.now()}.js
This is the simple solution I used to solve in one of my applications using PHP.
All JS and CSS files are placed in a folder with version name. Example : "1.0.01"
root\1.0.01\JS
root\1.0.01\CSS
Created a Helper and Defined the version Number there
<?php
function system_version()
{
return '1.0.07';
}
And Linked JS and SCC Files like below
<script src="<?= base_url(); ?>/<?= system_version();?>/js/generators.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?= base_url(); ?>/<?= system_version(); ?>/css/view-checklist.css" />
Whenever I make changes to any JS or CSS file, I change the System Verson in Helper and rename the folder and deploy it.
I had the same problem, all i did was change the file names which are linked to my index.html file and then went into the index.html file and updated their names, not the best practice but if it works it works. The browser sees them as new files so they get redownloaded on to the users device.
example:
I want to update a css file, its named styles.css, change it to styless.css
Go into index.html and update , and change it to
in case interested I've found my solution to get browsers refreshing .css and .js in the context of .NET MVC (.net fw 4.8) and the use of bundles.
I wanted to make browsers refresh cached files only after a new assembly is deployed.
Buinding on Paulius Zaliaduonis response, my solution is as follows:
store your application base url in the web config app settings (the HttpContext is not yet available at runtime during the RegisterBundle...), then make this parameter changing according to the configuration (debug, staging, release...) by the xml transform
In BundleConfig RegisterBundles get the assembly version by the means of reflection, and...
...change the default tag format of both styles and scripts so that the bundling system generates link and script tags appending a query string parameter on them.
Here is the code
public static void RegisterBundles(BundleCollection bundles)
{
string baseUrl = system.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["by.app.base.url"].ToString();
string assemblyVersion = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version.ToString();
Styles.DefaultTagFormat = $"<link href='{baseUrl}{{0}}?v={assemblyVersion}' rel='stylesheet'/>";
Scripts.DefaultTagFormat = $"<script src='{baseUrl}{{0}}?v={assemblyVersion}'></script>";
}
You'll get tags like
<script src="https://example.org/myscriptfilepath/script.js?v={myassemblyversion}"></script>
you just need to remember to to build a new version before deploying.
Ciao
2023 onward
At the time of writing, many web browsers support the Clear-Site-Data HTTP header [MDN reference]. To instruct the client web browser to clear the cache for the website domain and subdomains, set the following header in the HTTP response from the server:
Clear-Site-Data: "cache"
Alternatively, the following header may be better supported across browsers, but it clears other website data, such as localStorage and cookies, in addition to the cache.
Clear-Site-Data: "*"
However note that intermediate caches (e.g. a CDN) may not understand or respect this header, so intermediate caches may still respond with previously cached data.
Do you want to clear the cache, or just make sure your current (changed?) page is not cached?
If the latter, it should be as simple as
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">
Related
i'm trying to get my google page speed insights rating to be decent, but there are some external files that i would want to be cached aswell, anyone knows what would be the best way to deal with this?
https://s.swiftypecdn.com/cc.js (5 minutes)
https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (60 minutes)
https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/osd.js (60 minutes)
https://www.google-analytics.com/plugins/ua/linkid.js (60 minutes)
https://hey.hellobar.com/…d5837892514411fd16abbb3f71f0d400607f8f0b (2 hours)
https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js (2 hours)
Copy to your server and serve locally or from CDN, with different browser cache settings. Update GA scripts periodically with cronjob or something similar.
On Wordpress there are plugins that can do that for you, like this one: Above The Fold; they call this feature Javascript localization.
On the other hand, I use Google Pagespeed Module on server and it's directive MapProxyDomain in combination with Alternative async tracking snippet. That seems most elegant for me.
This should be enough for you to start solving your problem.
set cache-control to external resources?
You can't control the headers sent from a server that you don't control.
In other words, either host a copy yourself or there's nothing you can do about it.
Thanks
There is no solution for those files. If those files are CDN like bootstrap cdn you can copy those files locally into your host but if those request are generated on runtime than you can do nothing about it. :)
You can make your own cache
Place some files to the browser's localStorage (after the first time they arrive from the distant server) and next time you can serve them from the local copy. This way, you store things right where they're needed - the only thing to be careful with is updating them, you need a way to replace these files when it's time for a new version.
If you don't want to do this from scratch, here are some Javascript libraries:
https://www.sitepoint.com/9-javascript-libraries-working-with-local-storage/
Check out this lsCache for example, it looks super practical:
lscache.set('greeting', 'Hello World!', 2); // 2 minute expiration
lscache.get('greeting'); // returns "Hello World!"
lscache.remove('greeting'); // remove
lscache.flush(); // flush the entire cache
lscache.flushExpired(); // flush only expired items
I have images in private blockblobs in Azure.
I am using Azure Reader 2 and can access the image like this http://localhost:55328/azure/00001/IMG_0001.JPG - it works fine and redirects to the blob with a Shared Access Signature.
However, if I try to resize the image, e.g. IMG_0001.JPG?width=100&height=100, I just get a 404.
Stepping through the code, I notice this line
if (e.VirtualPath.StartsWith(prefix, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) && e.QueryString.Count == 0)
{
....
}
So, if there's a QueryString, no processing happens.
Debug output here:
https://gist.github.com/anonymous/28fd112eec194181baae
Thanks in advance
Your debugging misled you. It's true that redirection only happens when there is no querystring. When there are parameters, the blob needs to be modified, which means we must proxy it. A 302 redirect in that scenario is impossible.
AzureReader registers a IVirtualImageProvider, which ImageResizer automatically uses when handling all the proxying, processing, and caching.
The default behavior is to download, modify, and re-serve the data. The 302 redirect is just an optimization for throughput on unmodified files.
Notes:
sharedAccessExpiryTime is ignored, there is no setting by that name.
If you are going to reference code, it's best to link to the line in the file on github, otherwise we can't easily find the context. Press y on any github page to get a permalink, then click a line number (or range).
We had a problem with some of our IE clients failing to download a PDF, even after clicking on the link. We found the answer here resolved our problems: set forcedownload=true for PDF mime types in web.config.
However, that created another problem: we are now unable to render a PDF in a browser when we want to. We used to do this with an iframe. However, as you can see, the PDF just downloads, and does not render in the browser.
I learned that the forcedownload=true setting is actually a default in a subsequent version of Sitecore (v7.2). So, I'm hesitant to revert that.
So, how do I render a PDF in a browser in this situation?
You can leave forceDownload=false on the PDF mime type and instead set the following setting to false:
<setting name="Media.EnableRangeRetrievalRequest" value="false"/>
I faced the same dilema a few months back with the same initial fix. Found out the actual issue last week, I wrote a blog post about it. (In fact, I wrote the answer you linked to, I've updated it with the same information now for future visitors)
The issue is basically a combination of Adobe Reader plugin for IE9, chunked transfer encoding and streaming the file directly from the database. I found if you close your browser and try again, or force refresh with Ctrl+F5 it worked fine. Once Sitecore had cached the file to disk it would continue to work for everyone.
The above setting disables chunked transfer encoding, instead sending the file down to the browser as a single piece. This setting was introduced in Sitecore 6.5+
This is one of the flaws in the MediaRequestHandler and in my opinion; the forceDownload option is pretty useless the way it is designed by default. (Why would ever want to configure this option on media extension only?)
You’ll have to basically turn off the forcedownload option again and replace the MediaRequestHandler with your own one. I usually end up with writing my own anyway because if other issues with the default handler, such as dealing properly with CDN’s etc.
In the ProcessRequest pipeline, you can determine if the item should be “downloaded” or not by setting the Content-Disposition header. You basically need to get rid of the default handling of forceDownload and set your headers based on your own logic.
Personally I prefer to set a query string parameter, such as ?dl=1, and base the Content-Disposition header on this. You could also extend the MediaItem template to contain a default behavior on each item or sub tree (leverage from Sitecore inheritance and standard values), and potentially you could thereby also define (override) a specific filename on each item for the attachment part in the Content-Disposition header.
When rendering the link, you can leverage from the properties collection (write a suitable extension method or similar), so that you can clearly mark your code that the link is meant for download, but still leverage from the built in field render methods. Thereby you eliminate the risk of messing up the page editor etc.
/ Mikael
You have to disable range retrieval request in web.config by setting its value to false.
<setting name="Media.EnableRangeRetrievalRequest" value="false" />
MediaRequestHandler enables Sitecore to download PDF content partially in range using HTTP 206 Status code. You can also overwrite MediaRequestHandler and write your own custom implementation to handle media request.
I'm using Zombie.js for testing with Cucumber-js, and I can't seem to get my client side scripts to run.
Visiting the page:
this.browser.visit("http://localhost/boic",function(e, browser,status,errors){
console.log('status',status);
console.log('error',errors);
console.log('console',browser.text("H1"));
});
Returns a status of 200, no errors, and displays the H1 text correctly. However, if I include a script to change the H1 code in the page:
<script>
$('H1').html('hello world');
</script>
The H1 text remains unchanged, and no global variables are accessible via browser.window...
thanks!
Did you load jQuery in your page before the script is called?
there is also the runScripts browser option but that defaults to true.
But I'm gonna recommend running an external phantom.js process and going through the webdriver interface. Just because I spent 6 months trying to get zombie to do what I wanted and phantomjs made it all easy. http://phantomjs.org/release-1.8.html https://github.com/LearnBoost/soda
I agree w/ Jon Biz. Zombie is difficult to work with. Many sites that use JS libraries that might contain minor errors cause it to crash (I think node fails) when the zombie browser encounters them - if you have the runScripts option set. This makes it very hard to use for any application/site that requires external JS - ie most of them.
I also recommend switching to Phantomjs.
I'm going insane here... my first day with Coldfusion/MySQL running on a local Apache 2.2.0 webserver.
I have an
index.cfm
file, which I took and modified, replacing 20k of code with just
<p>HELLO WORLD</p>
But when I refresh the browser, the old index.cfm keeps coming up. No matter what I do...
- empty the file altogether
- disable browser cache
- clear ColdFusion Admin Panel Cache
- rename index.cfm to wtf.cfm
If I refresh.... same old index.cfm.
All other files are updated once I change them.
Question:
What am I missing? Must be Apache, because everything else makes no sense, doesn't it?
THANKS for ending my index.cfm-misery...!
EDIT:
I removed the whole application besides index.cfm. Refreshing now gives me hello world. I then added the Application.cfm, refreshed and I'm back to my full index.cfm...
Application.cfm looks like this:
...
<CF_callLogin
datasource="dtb"
TableName="table"
UserField="user"
...
BGColor="FFFFFF">
So I guess this calls callLogin.cfm and passes along above parameters. Still I also deleted the callLogin.cfm after trying to edit it forever, so there shouldn't be anything.
Still clueless...
EDIT2:
Could be a cf cache_pages?
I now removed all files in wwwroot\WEB-INF\cfclasses as per http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/thread.cfm/threadid:54088 let'see if this helps.... doesn't :-(
EDIT3:
Could be a cached template? - http://blogs.sanmathi.org/ashwin/2006/07/12/tangling-with-the-template-cache/ It is... See my answer below
Wasted half a day...
It is a cached template and CF or Apache just seem to not give a *%&/$ if you edit or delete the file.
Here is the hack that worked for me:
http://www.bennadel.com/blog/673-Force-ColdFusion-Server-To-Recompile-A-ColdFusion-Template.htm
= Generate a loong text, append it to the template, save, refresh and violá, all of a sudden your template is updated, as the file size changed enough to finally warrant an update of the template.
You also could try turning this off in development using the CF-Admin > Server Setting > Caching, but this did not work at all in my case (first place I started trying to delete...)
Anyway, maybe this saves someone else a day :-)
Restart Apache then see if resolved, then CF and see if resolved. I haven't run into an issue like this in CF that wasn't resolved after the CF service was restarted.